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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Clutter

Desk Pictures Before

Desk Pictures AFTER

One of my New Years resolutions is to become more organized and to de-clutter my life. I started at my desk here at work. I have had mountains of paper for months scattered everywhere and now that they are all filed away and organized I feel so much more relaxed and comfortable. I was browsing the Internet looking for guides to help me tackle a bigger task, MY HOME and I found this article below on About.com:

Clutter: most of us have a little of it here or there. In fact, many of us have more than just a little: According to a poll conducted on this site, over a third of readers avoid going home because of the overwhelming mess and don’t know where to begin cleaning. (In contrast, less than 10 percent say their homes are clutter-free.) How is all this mess affecting us?

Time: People often think of clutter as an energy drain, but it also drains us of our time. How? People in cluttered homes spend extra time virtually every day looking for lost items such as keys, money, shoes, tools, etc. Even when we’re looking right at the lost item, it becomes difficult to see it when surrounded by clutter--and the extra time it takes to search through the mess adds up quickly.

Money: When we don’t have bills and financial papers organized, bills can get lost, causing us to accrue late fees. Replacing lots items, and buying duplicates of those we didn’t realize we already had, can also carry a cost that adds up quickly.Stress: The most obvious toll that clutter takes is added stress on one's life.

Here are some examples of stress clutter can cause:

· Having guests over becomes an embarrassment, or an event that takes all-day preparation.· Each room carries visual reminders of all the work that needs to be done in the way of cleaning.· Using your home for activities like scrapbooking or yoga becomes difficult or impossible without taking significant time to clear the space.· According to the principles of Feng Shui, clutter drains you of your positive energy. You can actually feel it.·

A cluttered home, rather than a haven from stress, is a big stressor in itself, and intensifies the frustration and exhaustion that an already-stressed person feels.

What’s a Realistic Level of Clutter?For most of us, especially for parents of small children, it’s not realistic to maintain a home in perfect order every moment of each day. While it’s inspirational to thumb through catalogs that show beautifully furnished rooms or walk through a wonderfully un-cluttered model home, holding oneself to such high standards of neatness may not only be unrealistic, but can cause additional stress. For example, if you find yourself nagging or resenting other family members for the minor messes that they make to the point that it strains family harmony, you may need to relax your standards. But knowing the toll that clutter takes, how much clutter is too much?While we know that piles of clutter can cause stress and a perfect home may be unrealistic for some people, the level of tolerable clutter may vary from person to person.

Here are some guidelines to follow to help you decide where you should draw the line on clutter: · Company: Do you like to have your home neat enough to have drop-in company? Are you happy to be company-ready after 15 minutes of cleaning?· Organization: Is your home organized enough that you can generally find everything you’re looking for without having to search?· Stress Level: Can you truly relax in your home, or is it an energy drain?I have purchased some book cases, a garage organizational kit, and many clear tubs to get me started on my HOME…I can’t wait until I can set in my office/craft room and enjoy myself instead of cringing every time I walk in. Before/After pictures will be posted soon. One more NOTE, I must organize our garage because I’m adopting two dogs at our local shelter, it is one of my new years resolutions, there has been so many dogs that have been put down due to the horrible economy and we have 5 acres that our spoiled furr terds rarely use since they have the lavish life of living inside…I’m giving the future corn chip kids our garage as their doggy house so they can have the best life possible. I can’t wait to meet them!!

4 comments:

Gosh it looks great. Very inspiring. I wish you'd come do my desk...it's SO bad. I keep my house pretty organized, cause I throw A LOT away, but it's hard to trash things at work, ya know? Thanks for the pictures, now I can picture you sitting at that desk.

My home office is a wreck. Somehow it turned into the catch all room instead of a functioning office. I am inspired to make some changes!

I also want to congratulate you on the soon to be added family members, and commend you on your choice to adopt them! You will not be disappointed! Both of my dogs are rescue animals and are the most loving, nurturing and precious animals I could ever ask for! I also volunteer for a rescue organization and I am here to tell you that you are doing a wonderful selfless thing by taking in two dogs! It is absolutely heart wreching the amount of animals that are put down because they are unwanted.

Lynn, in this day in age I think it makes it so easy to throw stuff away. You can basically get any paperwork you need in just a few key-strokes. Bank Statements, bill stubs, carbon checks, EOB from health insurance comp, insurance policies, etc....ALL ON-LINE whenever you need them. Which you prob never need them. If I like something in a magazine, picture or recipe, just rip out that 1 or 2 pages and trash the magazine. I could go on and on....perhaps I should hook up with Peter Walsh, or better yet write my own book! Happy purging!